Evened Steven
by A Schoolday
Summary: Steve needs a little help with his costume. (request)


He sucked his teeth; it hurt his face bad. Steve didn't know how some people can regularly do this. Even more, he didn't think a boy his age would need to do this. Dark and wiry hairs fell on his melon cheeks silently unlike the pained hissing he made. A bigger one came out next because she hit a pimple. Just when it was at its hardening point, it broke into a sphere of blood. She apologized, with her Canadian accent beating the word "sorry" into "swa-orry". Steve wanted to make her stop but Carly-Beth knew what she was doing. She was an expert to him and he reverently requests her to help him with his costume. Not for trick-or-treating, those days were over for him, but for a Halloween dance party. He had planned originally to go as The Joker with Chuck as Batman. Steve bought the purple suit but Chuck wanted to dress solo again after the previous Halloween. He was still going to use that suit. After seeing how Carly-Beth ruled the year before that, he depended on her to give him a chance to be as great as she was. She felt commemorated that he did.

"It hurts doesn't it, but I can't put makeup on someone with a unibrow," Carly-Beth said smiling with bright eyes. Three more hairs were picked off his young face with her tweezer.

"I'm thirteen, I don't got a unibrow." Steve crossed his arms low on his stomach and over his lap, slouching with a scowl. It was better than putting on a mask; he was not comfortable ever wearing one again. He believed she can relate. Steve watches Carly-Beth pop the top off of one of the makeup supplies. It looked like a little marker to him.

"Gorillas are supposed to be hairy anyway," he adds. All he needed afterwards was to go home and grab his suit. Steve would be a dashing primate with a frightening painted face. He thinks it would be a interesting combo, but it wasn't enough. He recalls the Halloween when Carly-Beth made him almost run home. She had something extra to complement the rest of her costume. If the cursed mask did not terrify him and Chuck it would have been the ceramic bust. Thinking of the key item made him lose his scowl and left him with a sad frown.

"Hey uh, Carly-Beth," Steve muttered, "sorry for smashing your bust last year."

"Are you kidding me? You totally saved my bacon from that mask!" She brushes some of the lashes off his tie dye shirt, he played with the wrinkles nervously. Carly-Beth made him lift his chin up to apply a blue powder on his eyelids. Steve was much more cooperative with it than the tweezing.

"Besides, mom sculpt'd me a new one; now it doesn't have that dumb haircut I had in the sixth grade."

Steve was too shy to confess he liked her old haircut. Now it was a fluffed bowl cut at ear length and heavier bangs. He thought it was cute too, but he liked the shoulder length look. The hair he used to yank and put gum in was no more. It was a wonder how Carly-Beth would carry out such a favor after the trouble he made her undergo. It gave him hope that she will do other favors for him. Steve wanted to ask her to the dance party. He couldn't even tell her he liked her hair; how would he be able to ask her that?

Carly-Beth put down the makeup brush. She once overs her work and grins ear to ear. As much as Steve liked her smile, he wanted to know what it was for. She must have done a really good job, he waited to be given a mirror. Carly-Beth took a dinner plate sized one from the vanity in her room. It was round and held on top of a metal stem with two antennas ringed around it like ears. She took the stem like a handle and used her hand to adjust it straight.

The reflection looks at Steve but his eyes were closed. He opens them to surprise himself with his own image. He didn't know how to tell Carly-Beth it didn't look like a gorilla. At least it was an unique interpretation; her version of one had blood red lips, dusk eyelids, perfectly plucked eyebrows and bristly eyelashes.

He lunges for the mirror and she lets him have it, laughing. Steve frantically tilts it in every direction. From every side he looked them same. He looked like a girl. Not a gorilla or maybe The Joker, a girl. He knew Carly-Beth was not done getting even, the offer seemed too nice from the start. Steve knew he deserved it, sure, but he still slammed down the mirror. She roared laughter into one of her plain white pillows. The duck beanie baby toy bounced off the bed and landed on her butt. Steve grimaced, unaware he looked like an angry woman who was cut off while driving.

He tapped his foot until she came up for air and can hear him. "You have some nerve. I thought we made up! Why are you picking on me all the time lately?"

His well fomented cheek was touched by her lips. They felt small on his face but made a big difference to it. Steve made sheep eyes at the space in front, his smile was dumb but warm. His thoughts became warm along with it, he thinks of keeping the makeup on. _A creepy drag queen is an excellent idea_ , he dreams. After all, Carly-Beth worked hard to pretty him up with all that time and effort. She still had her mouth brushed against his blush. In a crisp whisper she said,

"The same reason you said you did, because I like you."


End file.
